This is an aquatic retelling of the Little Red Riding Hood tale. Little Red, a cuttlefish, is set to deliver crabcakes to Grandma. Little Red looks forward to sharing krill cakes with her. She makes it there safely and that’s when the tiger shark shows up! The shark sniffs for her as she plays hide and seek. Little Red has to use her natural abilities, her smarts, and gumption to outwit the tiger shark.

There’s one page where Red has obviously changed colors (to gold like her mom) but no mention of the cuttlefish’s ability to change color is mentioned in the text. For small children this might be the only confusing part, but it also provides a chance for the reader and the kid to chat about the natural abilities of cuttlefish. This particular ability is mentioned in the Author’s Note at the back of the book, along with other factoids about cuttlefish. I like that info on the tiger shark is also included at the end of the book. The authors also provide links to additional resources on sea life in this section. The whole package is a great little introduction to sea life for small kids.

Illustrations: Brilliant colors worthy of a living coral reef are used. I like how the angle changes too throughout the story, sometimes looking side on and sometimes from above, like a scuba diver. The facial expressions on the characters are great, like when the tiger shark bumps his face into the coral. A variety of sea life is illustrated in this book: sea cucumber, shrimp, octopus, tiger shark, and staghorn coral.

I received a copy of this book at no cost from the authors in exchange for an honest review.